By Katelyn Sattler
Staff Writer
Obetz City Council approved legislation to reappropriate expenses to the 2022 city budget.
Obetz Finance Director Matt Cramblit said, “We actually received more money for the Toy Road TIF than we anticipated this year. Payments In Lieu of Taxes funds were up considerably, so we need this appropriation to cover the $1,111 auditor/treasurer fees.
These monies actually go towards debt service for the building down at the Creekside and Toy Road area. Those monies go directly out until the debt service is paid.”
The $1,111 that goes to the auditor/treasurer fees is charged proportionately to the amount of TIF money collected.
“Money from the gas fund is appropriated for personal services as salaries,” said Cramblit. “We’ve had to move some things around mainly to cover the buyout that some utilities department personnel took recently.”
Council also approved appropriating money to the utility deposit fund and to authorize transfers to the water, sewer, and refuse operating funds.
Council okayed transferring $22,025 to the utility deposit fund and then transferring $5,000 to the water operating fund, $7,700 to the sewer operating fund, and $9,000 to the refuse operating fund to apply such deposits to unpaid utility charges attributable to the depositor.
“The individuals come in and put down a deposit for different utilities accounts,” Cramblit said. “When they leave, or no longer have the account, the account doesn’t necessarily close if there isn’t a full payment made on it. So if the deposit funds are being applied to monies owed, in some cases, it’s full payment. This takes money from the deposit fund and puts it to the appropriate fund. We are making sure everybody’s deposits are accounted for appropriately.”
Obetz Law Director Gene Hollins added, “In some of these instances, it’s pretty simple applying deposits to unpaid utility charges, but the staff has tracked these back years now, and matched them up, and then you figure out from an accounting standpoint how to do that. It’s not as simple as it sounds. A pretty excellent job on the part of the staff.”
Other Obetz news
•Councilman Michael Flaherty said groundbreaking for Buckstone Flats was Aug. 23.
•Obetz Police Chief Mike Confer said from Aug. 8-21 officers took 768 calls for service, wrote 14 moving violations with two of them being for speeding, made five misdemeanor arrests, took 31 office reports, filed five direct reports, and had one domestic violence incident. They also patrolled 3,067 miles over those two weeks.
